The Card Players, Michael Sweerts, c. 1646 - c. 1652

This card game is interrupted by a brawl that has erupted. The players’ gazes and the outstretched arm of the man in front direct our attention to the right. The painting may symbolize idleness as a counterpart to Sweerts’ genre scenes of industrious artists from the same period. One person, however, is hard at ‘work’: a sly young pickpocket takes advantage of the chaos to rob the man in blue.